Faith Pleases God

This morning we continue in our study of the Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11, as we consider the OT examples for Christian discipleship. Today we come to the story of Enoch, which isn’t really so much a story as it is an honorable mention. Besides Hebrews 11, there are just three verses in all of Scripture that mention Enoch, and yet, the writer of Hebrews decides to list him as an important example for us to follow. So, this morning, let’s read Heb. 11:5-6, and then flip to Genesis 4:17-5:24 to get the story behind the story. This morning, I want you to answer for yourself an all-important question: what are you doing to please God? What do you think it takes to please your creator? Some people don’t really care about that question. They think if God exists, he exists to make them happy. They might wonder why God would ever judge them because they are fine just the way they are. Others think that they can please God through their great achievements, whether it be their good works or their success or their wealth or their wisdom. None of those things please God, though. We have the secret to pleasing God in the life of Enoch this morning. To answer this question, we need to consider the Man of Fury and the Man of Faith.

First, there is good reason for why I had us read such a long piece of Genesis 4 and 5, with all the complicated names and the seemingly meaningless genealogy. It’s not meaningless, though. There is not one wasted word in all of Scripture, and that is especially true in this story.  Remember the curses that God pronounced on the serpent, Eve, and Adam. As God is cursing the serpent, in Genesis 3:15, he says that the seed of the woman will crush the head of the serpent. This statement is a prophecy – what theologians call the protoevangelium – the first announcement of the good news. As I mentioned last week, I believe that this is why Eve exclaims at the birth of Cain, “I have gotten a man with the help of the Lord.” This is important to understand because there is a story behind the story of Genesis. Call it a scarlet thread. This thread runs all the way through Genesis in ways that we just fly past on our mission to find helpful precepts or rules to follow. The thread is of a struggle between the seed of the serpent and the seed of the woman. In the first story of life after the fall, the seed of the serpent, Cain, hides in field and strikes his righteous brother like a snake. Then, Moses turns to an important genealogy, tracing ten descendants of Adam through Cain (Adam -> Cain -> Enoch ->Irad -> Hehujael -> Methushael -> Lamech -> Jabal -> Jubal -> Tubal-cain). We are told that these men did great things. They built cities, made instruments, and formed cultures. But, in verse 25, Moses introduces us to another line of ten – the line of Seth (Adam -> Seth -> Enosh -> Kenan -> Mahalalel -> Jared -> Enoch -> Methuselah -> Lamech -> Noah). Again, this might all seem like meaningless genealogy, except for two important notes. On the seventh descendent of Cain (Lamech), we get a story of Lamech’s wickedness. And, on the seventh descendent of Seth (Enoch), we get a story of Enoch’s righteousness. The number seven is extremely important in Scripture. It symbolizes completeness. So, when we find it, we need to pay attention. Moses wants us to notice an important contrast between the seventh seed of the serpent and the seventh seed of the woman.

So, who is this seventh in the line of the serpent? In Gen. 4:19-24, we find a man of fury named Lamech who continues the chaos and disorder that his ancestor, Cain, started. There are three ways that Lamech rages against the order that God established in creation. First, we find that Lamech took two wives. Now, back in Genesis 2, when God created the woman out of the side of Adam, the intention is clear – God provided the perfect helpmate and the compliment to Man in the Woman that he made. And, they were to be “one flesh”, a covenantal, lifelong union. But, Lamech doesn’t receive a wife from the Lord, nor does he honor the covenant of marriage. Instead, notice the language used – he “took” two wives. Like Eve took the forbidden fruit in the garden, Lamech reaches out and takes what he should not have. He turns the God-honored institution on its head, making it what he wants it to be rather than what God intended. It’s worth noting that this is the ever-present sin of our generation – to distort marriage into whatever we want it to be. From divorce for any reason at any time to open marriages to polyamories and swinging to gay marriage – our society believes that marriage is not something established by God for specific purposes, but it is rather whatever you want it to be because it’s about your fulfillment, your happiness, your pleasure.

Second, we find that Lamech killed a man and then celebrated it. In verses 23-24 we have a song that Lamech wrote for his wives where he brags about killing a man. Now, in the Hebrew, this song is absolutely scandalous. For one, the second reference to the “man” that Lamech killed refers to him as a “young man”. The Hebrew word is yeled, which means “adolescent boy”.  So, Lamech is singing about killing a young teenager. Worse yet, the words used for “wound” and “strike” refer to bruising. In other words, a young teenager bruised Lamech, and in retaliation, Lamech took out his sword and lopped off his head. Then, he wrote a song about it and compelled his two wives to sing it. He treats human life as a joke. He treats murder as a reason to brag.

Lastly, Lamech uses the word of God to justify his sin. At the end of his song, he warns against seeking revenge by connecting his murder with Cain’s. He thinks, if God would protect Cain with a sevenfold warning, then surely he has seventy-sevenfold. So it is with everyone who thinks that God exists for their own happiness. They think that they can bend the law of God to their own desires, so they distort marriage to meet their ends. They think of others as objects to be used and abused for their own pleasure.  If your lover isn’t meeting your needs anymore, get rid of her. If that unborn baby is going to crimp your style, kill it and then shout your abortion. If you feel convicted by the Christian witness against such things, then call down Scripture on them. Tell them, “Hey, doesn’t your God say ‘Judge not.’” Or, tell them that their being bad Christians because Jesus said to love everyone.

In contrast to this man of fury, we find the man of faith. The seventh seed of the serpent sought his own pleasure, but the seventh seed of the woman sought to please God. So, in Genesis 5:21-24 we have the brief mention of Enoch. The life of Enoch is summed up in one simple sentence in verse 24: “Enoch walked with God and was not, for God took him.” Enoch didn’t make a name for himself. He didn’t take whatever he wanted. He didn’t write a song or build culture or fight and kill. His life is defined by one thing: he walked with God. Back in Hebrews 11:5, the writer says that Enoch was taken up by God, avoiding death, because he “pleased God.” So, how did he please God? By walking with him. As the writer says in verse 6, “without faith it is impossible to please God.” If you would please God, if you would receive eternal life, you must walk in faith. You cannot bend life to your will. You cannot make of God’s word whatever you want it to be. You cannot avoid the judgment that is to come. You must instead walk in faith.

Brothers and sisters, the great promise of the life of Enoch is that the faithful Christian walk has a reward that far outweighs any earthly pleasure. You may feel the pressure of your friends to live like them, jumping from one lover to the next in the pursuit of pleasure. You may hear the call of the individualist to form life around your identity and desires, follow your truth, look out for #1, and focus on self-love. But, if they continue in that way, their lot is cast with Lamech and the rest of the seed of Satan. Choose, instead, the narrow road, the walk of faith, the way of Enoch. The way of Enoch is the way of Jesus, who said to love our enemies, and do good to those who persecute us. The way of Enoch is the way of Paul, who said to present our bodies as a living sacrifice. So, may we walk in the way of faith so that we may please God.